The effects of the arrow don’t last forever. That would be a manipulation of our powers, because, despite how much we’d like to believe otherwise, people change. They grow, they learn, and sometimes… they move on.
Forcing two unmatched souls to stay together would only create more hate in the world, and that defeats the entirepurpose of our existence. Our influence lasts a few weeks, maybe a month, or until everyone affected accepts their love bond.
The process is pretty straightforward. Point, shoot, and watch the product of our matchmaking come to life. There’s only a single rule.
Well, besidesDon’t Miss,but I feel like that one is self-explanatory.
Their attention has to be focused on the other person. Otherwise, we could just be pairing people up willy-nilly. It doesn’t have to be complicated—a shared glance from across the room, a polite conversation, a passing smile, holding a door open… but timing iseverything.
The moment the arrow strikes, that flirty grin the single mom is giving the bag boy? Amplified to a thousand. Now there are mere moments to snag the bag boy while his attention is still on her before we have a stage five clinger situation.
Timing, see?
And this right here… this is why I’m currentlyfreaking the fuck out!
I cannot be trusted with a pet fish, much less the love lives of an entire species!
I should just be a normal Cherub… doing normal Cherub things. The rest of us have an important mission in life, too, although the stress levels of a typical day are much lower. Our ability to see inside a human’s soul means we also notice when that soul needs a pick-me-up.
Have you ever been in a foul mood, and something small happened that made you feel better? A stranger’s smile, perhaps? A flower blooming from the crack in the sidewalk? Chances are, one of us realized you needed a boost and sent a touch of magic your way.
This whole Cupid business may be brand new to me, but inspecting a human’s soul is not. For two years now, I’ve been peering into the depths of humankind.
Two years.
Only two years.
Cherubs aren’t considered adults until the age of thirty, which means a man barely past his adolescence is now in charge of true love for the next month.
Why is no one else panicking about this!?
Chapter 2
Azrael
“I need an adult,” I say out loud, to no one in particular. Other than the puzzled glance I get from a middle-aged woman further down the aisle, none of the customers pay any attention to me.
Why should they?
To them, I’m an every-day, ordinary thirty-something-year-old human man.
Iaman adult.
An exhausted adult, with dark bags under my eyes, and undiagnosed social anxiety…
Actually, you know what? That tracks.
Late-night archery practice bled into the wee hours of the morning, but I managed to hit the target twenty-two more times.
Twenty-two.
We won’t mention that’s out of four hundred shots.
Or that I stood much,muchcloser than the fifty-foot recommended distance.
Or that I openly wept.
Those are just… tiny, itty-bitty details not worth mentioning.
